A drilling rig system is used in common drilling methods and systems used in drilling boreholes to produce oil or other hydrocarbons. A drilling rig system may include a surface system disposed above ground at the well site and a downhole system disposed below ground. The surface system may include a substructure, a mast, and other surface equipment.
When the drilling rig system is assembled, the mast may be raised from a substantially horizontal rig-down configuration to a substantially vertical rig-up configuration using raising cylinders. It may be desired to monitor an orientation and/or position of the raising cylinders and/or the mast during this process. If the orientation of the raising cylinders and/or the mast is not known, the mast may not be oriented vertically when it is installed, which may result in uneven distribution of stresses on the mast thereby limiting the load handling capacity of the mast and may eventually result to catastrophic failure.
During operation of the drilling rig system, surface equipment may experience movement due to the operations and/or environmental conditions. It may be desired to monitor an orientation and/or position of pieces of surface equipment during rig operations. If rig operations are performed without such measurements, operations may be continued without adjustment when the surface equipment is misaligned, leading to incorrect procedures, damage to equipment, and potentially catastrophic failure.